CEO Update – October 2022

As we head towards the end of 2022, the VPA is excited to welcome a new Executive Director and celebrate exciting announcements for the Arden precinct and the Parkville National Employment and Innovation Cluster (NEIC).

Welcome Verity Harris

I am very pleased to announce that Verity Harris has joined the VPA as our new Executive Director – Infrastructure, Strategy & Planning.

Verity has more than two decades of experience in central agencies and line departments in the Victorian public service, encompassing a range of strategic policy, regulatory, operational and project delivery roles. She adds to the broad skills of our senior executive team and brings with her a wealth of experience in fostering collaborative, influential relationships across government, industry and other jurisdictions to solve complex problems and achieve cross-government outcomes.

Verity has joined us from the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions where she held the position of Executive Director – Establishment, Office of the Commonwealth Games. In this role, Verity led a time-limited team to establish the operating functions for this new high-profile government initiative. Prior to this Verity held the position of Executive Director, Integrity and Advisory at the Victorian Public Sector Commission, providing strategic leadership across a range of policy and program outcomes that support public sector professionalism and integrity.  

Verity’s achievements include leading the establishment of Transport for Victoria and Visit Victoria, and delivering a review of Victoria’s visitor economy. She has served in the Department of Treasury and Finance, the Department of Premier and Cabinet, Local Government Victoria and as a Ministerial advisor in the transport portfolio.

We are very excited to welcome Verity to the VPA, and for her to contribute her leadership and experience to our work planning prosperous, liveable and sustainable urban communities across a growing Victoria.

New hospital campuses announced for Arden

The Victorian Government has announced a new medical precinct in Arden, with new campuses for the Royal Melbourne Hospital and Royal Women’s Hospital in the heart of the future precinct.

The VPA was responsible for leading the structure planning for Arden on behalf of the Victorian Governmen, and in August the approved plans were gazetted, paving the way for a thriving new employment and innovation precinct in Melbourne’s inner northwest. Located around the Metro Tunnel’s Arden Station, the precinct will accommodate 34,000 jobs and 15,000 residents by 2050.

The plans for Arden are the result of four years of collaboration by the VPA with government and council, and three rounds of extensive community consultation. Our partnership across government has ensured the plans for Arden will support the development of this world-class biomedical precinct. The gazetted plans have now laid the conditions for these two new hospital campuses and the biggest ever hospital project in Australia’s history.

These exciting new anchor institutions will catalyse Arden’s development into an innovation and employment precinct that will be pivotal to the growth of Victoria’s knowledge economy.

Thank you to all of our partners who worked with us to bring this exciting investment in Victoria’s future to life.

Parkville Precinct Opportunity Statement

Minister for Business Precincts Ben Carroll launched the Parkville Precinct Opportunity Statement on 5 October, outlining the vision for the precinct’s next phase of growth.

Parkville is one of Melbourne’s seven designated National Employment and Innovation Clusters (NEICs) and is the epicentre of Victoria’s world-leading biomedical sector with close to 73,000 jobs and the potential to grow to more than 80,000 jobs by the mid-2030s. With over $2.8 billion investment in research and healthcare facilities over the past decade, it produces 20 per cent of Australia’s patent citations.

The Parkville precinct is home to over 30 world-class hospitals, research institutes, companies and universities and is where education, research and commercialisation come together to produce some of today’s most important health innovations.

The Parkville Precinct Opportunity Statement outlines goals to drive future investment, nurture innovation, attract talent and ideas, coordinate whole of Victorian Government services and infrastructure, and foster physical and digital connection.

The VPA has played a key role in planning for Melbourne’s NEICs including Parkville, and worked collaboratively with the Department of Jobs Precincts and Regions to provide land use planning inputs for the Opportunity Statement, which will shape the future of this state-significant precinct.

Find out more about the future of Parkville and view the Opportunity Statement on the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions (DJPR) website

VPA to plan for growth in Ballarat’s north

The Minister for Planning has directed the VPA to lead the development of a Precinct Structure Plan for Ballarat’s Northern Growth Area.

To further support the forward-planning for Ballarat’s growth, the VPA will also conduct a high-level strategic review of Ballarat’s proposed greenfield and urban renewal areas to inform the staging and sequencing of residential growth in both new communities and within Ballarat’s existing suburbs, to support appropriate residential land supply moving forward.

This is the latest in the first tranche of projects in the VPA’s emerging regional planning pipeline, joining VPA-led and council-supported projects that have been initiated over the past year in Geelong and Bendigo. 

We look forward to working with Ballarat Council and our partners across government and industry on these exciting projects for one of Victoria’s most important regional growth areas.